How to dye rope

I have some string (rope) that I need to dye orange for use on the Shrimper, anyone got any thoughts on what I could use to dye it.



Alan

How about trying some rusting powder, rubbed in an when you have the rope in the right position, seal it with matt varnish. The powders come in various colours including a burnt orange. You should get a nice aged look..

never had to colour my rope that hew.....but have used shoe polish in the past.......if you can get hold of some orange stuff it might do.

neil.

I will try to explain what I want it for.

There are going to be lobster pots on the boat, last week I was in Bridlington harbour looking at the boats, the rope that they use is an orange nylon rope for attaching the lobster pots to, if you remember those wooden contraptions with orange nylon string, a lump of lead and a hook that you fished off the pier with, thats the sort of rope effect I am after. Looked in fishing tackle shops but it is all to big, so the next best thing I thought was to dye some rope that I have that is the right dia.

OK, any more thoughts lads, the wife sugested food colouring or boiling some carrots up to get the colour out and soak it in that.

Mmmm Alan

if you hang on till monday alan, I'll pop down to my local Yacht chandlers....I think the proper polypropelene rope comes in strands.....I'll see if it can be stripped down to smaller strands and if so |I'll get you a couple of metres of it.

neil.

Alan, orange juice will do what you want if you want it darker boiling or leaving near heat will evaporate the water content making a more concentrated colour I've also used Tea and Coffee to stain various ships rigging and cables.

Adding some salt to the colour mix helps set the colour in the string or cord.

Damien.

Another option is the small bottles of food dyes used to colour cake icing there is usually orange or if you are after a fluoro orange a bath in Testors fluoro orange and Turps will do the job without leaving stiff.
Damien.

Thanks for the offer Neil, if it is strands out of a larger rope, wont it be all wavey, no panic so Ill wait and see what you find.

What a mind of information you are Damien, if Neil finds nothing Ill go with the Orange juice one I think , perhaps with a touch of Vodka



Alan

Why bother to dye rope, try bricklayers line like this........

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cardoc-No-3-Orange-Poly-Mason-Lines-18m-/380391732542?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item58911d353e#ht_500wt_1156

Plus it is braided as well.......

Thanks for that Windy and welcome to the site.

Hard to tell from the pic but it could be the right size. Off to the local builders supplies tomorrow to have a look.

Nice one Windy



Alan

try modelingtimbers Alan they do a orange rope

Had a look at his at the last show Tatooed, but it was too thin, did spend a few pennies with him though, he has some good stuff.



Alan

AlanP wrote:

Thanks for the offer Neil, if it is strands out of a larger rope, wont it be all wavey, no panic so Ill wait and see what you find.

Alan

Whilst lying in bed last night listening to my good lady cough her heart out with a bad serious cold I was thinking about that.......it probably will be as they are heat treated whilst making the stuff so will have crimps and waves in them all over........so sorry for suggesting it....but sadly won't do I'm afraid.

neil.

I do most of my boat thinking/planing over a couple of whisky's before bed, that way I don't hear the good lady's snoring, sorry, gentle puffing



Alan

Will normal fabric dye from somewhere like dunelm or any other sowing shop not do? Just dye it in a bucket and you have orange and a proper dye shouldn't come out too easy after a couple of washes.

????????????

I've used fabric dyes a few years ago - had to add salt but worked well. Revlon or something like that and tins were smaller than a snuffbox.

................ where the heck did that 'snuffbox' come from? I'm only 54.

Dave

Dylon works well boil in pan then set with salt water, pan is knacked after, when I started car racing in the seventies we would boil our plastic parts to stop them braking then we started to add dylon as they where white parts "Associated" they came out great you could tell if you had to replace a part at a meeting as it did not match.



http://www.dylon.co.uk/colours.html



peter

That's it Peter, Dylon! not Revlon

Dave

18M - there's going to be some lobster pots on that boat